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Georgia and Russia play blame game
Georgia yesterday accused Russia of sending fighter jets into its airspace to undermine US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the pro-Western state.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:04 July 10, 2008
Tbilisi: Georgia yesterday accused Russia of sending fighter jets into its airspace to undermine US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the pro-Western state.
Rice was heading to Tbilisi with a message of support for Georgia's government in its conflict with Russia over two breakaway regions, and to endorse the country's bid to join the Nato military alliance.
Russia made no immediate comment on the Georgian allegations. Earlier, Russia's foreign ministry said it was Tbilisi which was stoking tensions in the volatile region by orchestrating acts of violence in the separatist regions.
The two regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - lie in an arc of land the West sees as a vital route for exporting oil from the Caspian Sea to world markets, and where Washington and Moscow are competing for influence.
The deputy commander of Georgia's military, Zurab Pochkua, said four Russian jets had spent a total of forty minutes in the air over South Ossetia on Tuesday night. He said Georgian forces did not fire on them to avoid loss of life on the ground.
A spokesman for Russia's air force declined to make an immediate comment. Russia has denied allegations in the past that its jets flew into Georgian airspace.
Officials in Tbilisi said Russia was ratcheting up tension hours before Rice's arrival because it wanted to sabotage talks on Western states taking a more active role in mediating in the separatist conflicts.
"It's a well-known policy of the Russian Federation to arrange provocations to coincide with high-level diplomatic activities. It's not only this visit," Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili said.
Peace process
"Every time when diplomatic activity becomes strong enough to bring changes to the peace process, meaningful changes, then the Russian Federation does something to jeopardise that."
Earlier, Russia accused Georgia in the most explicit form to date of being behind attacks this month including a cafe bomb in Abkhazia that killed four and an exchange of fire in South Ossetia that killed two separatists.
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